This a first translation and critical edition of the Gītālaṃkāra, a reference work and the oldest known treatise on the theory of music and its codification in India, cited by such later treatises as the Nāṭya Śāstra. The Gītālaṃkāra enables us to recon-struct the evolution of music in India through an archaic and singular termi-nology that identifies rāga as varṇa, prior to Greek and Muslim influences. The interest of the study is threefold: historical, linguistic and musicological. It is characterized by extreme technical clarity, a total lack of mythological citations and a categorization of musicological elements based on the human voice and not on any musical instrument. The present translation (in French) derives from the only known manuscript of the text. The original text is reproduced in the nāgari script; the introduction and a large number of explanatory notes provide a transcription of the scales in the European system. The book includes an appendix and index.